Tag: poverty
Isaiah was no Communist!
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Wading again into the fraught issue of economic inequality and biblical teachings, Pope Francis on Wednesday (Feb. 24) spoke passionately about Isaiah’s warning to the greedy and assured thousands who gathered in St. Peter’s Square that the prophet “wasn’t a communist!” “Richness and power are realities that can be good and useful… Read More ›
Pope Francis: Praise For Dorothy Day And Thomas Merton
NPR: He praised one as a man of prayer, the other for her “passion for justice.” But many Americans might need a reminder about two of the people Pope Francis discussed in Congress on Thursday: philosopher Thomas Merton and activist Dorothy Day. The two Catholics were mentioned alongside two other, more famous names: Abraham Lincoln… Read More ›
Corruption is Greater Evil than Sin
Vatican City, 23 October 2014 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father received delegates from the International Association of Penal Law (AIDP), addressing them with a speech focusing on the issues in their subject area that have recourse to the Church in her mission of evangelization and the promotion of the human person. The Pope began… Read More ›
The contrast between royal news and papal trip
It has been curious, as many things that may bear meaning are often curious: At the same time that a major Catholic figure is making an appearance with a strong message for the world, it is nearly overcome by news that involves the royal family. It happened when Mother Teresa and Princess Diana died the… Read More ›
Materialism and Suicide
With the economy here in a shambles and there’s little sign of any improvement ahead for most people. So, in a society that values the material, it only makes sense that this news would bring more despair and increase the suicide rate. So, now we see this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207089/56-million-suicide-prevention-programme-launched-study-reveals-Americans-lives-die-car-crashes.html?printingPage=true What does this mean for addicts… Read More ›
Offer her the throne of our hearts and minds
4. God the Father, rich in mercy, has given his earthly children an Immaculate Mother: the Mother of Jesus. As we heard in the Gospel, high on the Cross, the supreme seat of love and sacrifice, Jesus speaks to his Mother and to the disciple. To his Mother he said: “Woman, behold, your son!”. He… Read More ›
Charity toward our neighbor
One day the patriarch John (the Almsgiver) gave to one of his servants who had been reduced to extreme poverty two pounds of gold with his own hands so that no one might know of it. When his servant said, “After this gift I shall no longer have the courage to look you in the… Read More ›
Is absolute poverty perfect goodness?
Someone asked amma Syncletica of blessed memory, “Is absolute poverty perfect goodness?” She replied, “It is a great good for those capable of it; even those who are not capable of it find rest for their souls in it though it causes them anxiety. As tough cloth is laundered pure white by stretched and trampled… Read More ›
Can you Live on $2 a day?
Today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day. That’s half the world struggling to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of… Read More ›
We Are Shaped by the Past
The past colors the way we look at today and think about tomorrow. It forms our very definition of ourselves. The past never, ever really leaves any of us. All of us come from something — an alcoholic home, incest, embarrassing poverty, perhaps. That’s why it is so important, both to our spiritual life and… Read More ›